The 5th Ministerial Roundtable at the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh has concluded with the creation of a new ministerial steering group to shape future agendas on mineral security and supply-chain resilience. Convened by Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, the roundtable gathered producing and consuming countries from Africa, Asia and Europe to discuss cross-border investment frameworks and shared ESG standards. The steering group will coordinate between forums, aiming to turn high-level commitments on responsible mining and critical minerals into specific policy and project pipelines.

Westminster City Council has adopted a retrofit-first planning policy in its City Plan Partial Review, obliging developers to evidence options for retaining and adapting existing structures before applying for demolition and rebuild. The plan also tightens affordable housing requirements, shifting the tenure mix in new schemes from 40% to 70% social rent and from 60% to 30% intermediate, and capturing sites with fewer than 10 units through financial contributions. Four large mixed-use strategic sites are flagged for redevelopment: St Mary’s Hospital, Westbourne Park Bus Garage, land adjacent to Royal Oak, and Grosvenor Sidings.

Australia will create a A$1.2 billion critical minerals reserve by year-end 2026, initially stockpiling domestically produced rare earths, antimony and gallium to counter China’s pricing power and support defence and clean-tech supply chains. The scheme will secure and on-sell offtake rights rather than physical tonnes, with Export Finance Australia and the industry department gaining expanded powers to structure transactions and support local miners. An associated US–Australia agreement includes an US$8.5 billion project pipeline, and G7 finance ministers are expected to debate minimum pricing for some critical minerals.